Scunthorpe v Port Vale match report: 12th Sept 2006

SCUNTHORPE UNITED 3 (Sharp 10, 45, Morris 65)
PORT VALE 0

Scunthorpe: Murphy, Mulligan, Hinds, Foster (Crosby 44), Williams, Taylor, Sparrow, Baraclough, Morris (Keogh 84), Torpey (McBreen 84), Sharp.
Subs Not Used: Lillis, Ridley.
Booked: Crosby.

Port Vale: Goodlad, Abbey, Pilkington, McGregor, Miles (Jeff Smith 61), Moore (Husbands 79), Sonner (Harsley 70), Whitaker, Humphreys, Sodje, Constantine.
Subs Not Used: Anyon, Walker.
Booked: Abbey, Sonner.

Att: 3,473
Ref: A D'Urso (Essex).

High flying Port Vale headed to Glanford Park on Tuesday evening in the hope of inflicting more damage to Scunthorpes stuttering start to the new season. Vale going into this game in third position meanwhile United began the game sitting in the bottom four.

Brian Laws made one change to the starting eleven which were so poor only three days earlier at Oldham, Andy Keogh was demoted to the bench with Steve Torpey starting alongside top scorer Billy Sharp.

Scunthorpe started impressively against their high flying opponents and deservedly took the lead after only ten minutes, the goal scorer was Billy Sharp who knocked the ball home from close range after Steve Fosters header had been pushed against the bar by Goodlad in the visitors goal.

Vale came back strongly and nearly equalized on a couple of occasions, Sodje missed one good chance and former Iron loanee, Richie Humphreys forced Murphy into a brilliant save touching his first time shot around the post.

Gradually though Scunthorpe started to push forward again with Sharp forcing Goodlad into a superb double save. Sharp was not to be denied though as he managed increase the lead right on the stroke of half time, a near post corner by the impressive Morris, who was making his home debut was flicked on to Sharp beyond the back stick and his stunning first time volley put United two goals to the good at half time. The only low point for United in the first half was an injury to Steve Foster, the former Doncaster man was enjoying his best game for some weeks before he was forced off with a facial injury and was replaced by Andy Crosby.

The second half started in lively fashion with both teams desperate to get the next goal. Sharp thought that he had won Scunthorpe a penalty but his appeals were waved away by Pemiership referee Andy D’Urso. At the other end Port Vale thought that they were back in the game when Sodje fired home only to be denied by an offside flag. Sharp then went close to completing his hat trick but just failed to connect with a superb cross from Morris as the game continued in an end to end fashion.

Scunthorpe it was though who sealed victory on sixty five minutes when Morris opened his United account, the former Leeds youngster firing home from the edge of the box after the ball had reached him following a good run by Taylor.

The Iron continued to push forward and were almost rewarded on a couple of occasions but Taylor failed to hit the target both teams despite been well placed.

This was an excellent performance by Scunthorpe against a useful looking Port Vale outfit, a performance which makes the recent displays at Rotherham and Oldham all the harder to explain. There is no doubting that United have a lot of quality in their ranks and if only they could produce more displays of attacking football, backed up with a lot of hard work they would certainly be in a lot healthier position in the League One table.

There were a lot of impressive performances by the Iron players and even though Billy Sharp will get many of the headlines for his two goals this was a good alround team effort with the likes of Murphy, Hinds, Morris and Torpey all giving superb displays, the latter even received a standing ovation in the closing minutes as he was replaced by McBreen.

It was also nice to see former Iron star Paul Harsley receive a warm reception from the Iron faithful when he came on as a second half substitute for Vale.

The victory lifts United out of the bottom four and they will be looking to make further progress up the league when they entertain League One new boys Cheltenham at Glanford Park on Saturday with a 3pm kick off.